Gold mine accident in China, 12 miners alive

An explosion at the gold mine in China's Shandong province had trapped 22 miners underground a week ago. At least 12 of them are expected to be alive after a handwritten note was passed through a rescue shaft on Sunday night, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

The explosion occurred on 10th January which jammed the miners at a depth of about 600 metres underground, Xinhua stated, adding that the rescue operations are being carried out as over 300 workers are drilling a new shaft to the area the trapped are in. The rescue channel is also been used to pass food and supplies to the group.

The note passed through the shaft told that out of the 12 alive workers, four of the miners had been injured. The handwritten also said that the dearth of fresh air and incursion of water has deteriorated everyone's health. The other 10 miners' status remains unknown.

Managers of the mine have already been detained and removed from their posts, along with the mayor of the nearby city of Yantai, as they failed to report the incident for more than a day and an investigation was launched last week, Xinhua stated.